LIST OF CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS AND MAIN EU SOURCING COUNTRIES

Antimony : (flame retardants, defence applications, lead-acid batteries)

• Turkey 62%
• Bolivia 20%
• Guatemala 7%

Baryte: (medical applications, radiation protection, chemical applications)

• China 38%
• Morocco 28%
• Other EU 15%
• Germany 10%

Bauxite (aluminium production)

• Guinea 64%
• Greece 12%
• Brazil 10%
• France 1%

Beryllium (electronic and communications equipment, automotive, aerospace and defence components)

• N/A

Bismuth (pharmaceutical and animal feed industry, medical applications, low-melting point alloys)

• China 93%

Borate (high performance glass, fertilizers, permanent magnets)

• Turkey 98%

Cobalt (batteries, super alloys, catalysts, magnets)

• Congo DR 68%
• Finland 14%
• French Guiana 5%

Coking Coal (coke for steel, carbon fibres, battery electrodes)

• Australia 24%
• Poland 23%
• USA 21%
• Czechia 8%
• Germany 8%

Fluorspar (steel and iron making, refrigeration & air-conditioning, aluminium making and other metallurgy)

• Mexico 25%
• Spain 14%
• South Africa 12%
• Bulgaria 10%
• Germany 6%

Gallium (semi conductors, photovoltaic cells)

• Germany 35%
• UK 28%
• China 27%
• Hungary 2%

Germamium (optical fibres and infrared optics, satellite solar cells, polymerization catalysts)

• Finland 51%
• China 17%
• UK 11%

Hafnium (super alloys, nuclear control rods, refractory ceramics)

• France 84%
• USA 5%
• UK 4%

Indium (flat panel displays, photovoltaic cells and photonics, solders)

• France 28%
• Belgium 23%
• UK 12%
• Germany 10%
• Italy 5%

Lithium (batteries, glass and ceramics, steel and aluminium metallurgy)

• Chile 78%
• USA 8%
• Russia 4%

Magnesium (lightweight alloys for automotive, electronics, packaging or construction, desulphurization agent in steelmaking)

• China 93%

Natural Graphite (batteries, refractories for steelmaking)

• China 47%
• Brazil 12%
• Norway 8%
• Romania 2%

Natural Rubber (tires, rubber components for machinery and household goods)

• Indonesia 31%
• Thailand 18%
• Malaysia 16%

Niobium (high-strength steel and super alloys for transportation, infrastructure, high tech applications (capacitors, superconducting magnets)

• Brazil 18%
• Canada 13%

Phosphate rock (mineral fertilizer, phosphorous compounds)

• Morocco 24%
• Russia 20%
• Finland 16%

Phosphorous (chemical applications, defence applications)

• Kazakhstan 71%
• Vietnam 18%
• China 9%

Scandium (solid oxide fuel cells, lightweight alloys)

• UK 98%
• Russia 1%

Silicon Metal (semiconductors, photovoltaics, electronic components, silicones)

• Norway 30%
• China 11%
• Germany 6%
• Spain 6%

Strontium (ceramic magnets, aluminium alloys, medical

• Spain 100%

Tantalum (capacitors for electronic devices, super alloys)

• Congo DR 36%
• Rwanda 30%
• Brazil 13%

Titanium (lightweight high-strength alloys for e.g. aeronautics, space and defense, medical applications)

Tungsten (alloys e.g. for aeronautics, space, defense, electrical technology, mill cutting and mining tools)

Vanadium (high-strength low alloys for e.g. aeronautics, space, nuclear reactors, chemical catalysts)

Platinum group metals (chemical and automotive catalysts, fuel cells, electronic applications)

Heavy rare earth elements (permanent magnets for electric motors and electricity generators, lighting phosphors, catalysts, batteries, glass and ceramics)

• China 98%
• Other non-EU 1%
• UK 1%

Light rare earth elements

• China 99%
• UK 1%

Sourcing from China Summary

1. Light rare earth elements: China 99%
2. Heavy rare earth elements: China 98%
3. Bismuth: China 93%
4. Magnesium: China 93%
5. Natural Graphite: China 47%
6. Baryte: China 38%
7. Gallium: China 27%
8. Germamium: China 17%
9. Silicon Metal: China 11%
10. Phosphorous: China 9%

Note

For electric vehicle batteries and energy storage, the EU would need up to 18 times more lithium and 5 times more cobalt in 2030, and almost 60 times more lithium and 15 times more cobalt in 2050, compared to the current supply to the whole EU economy. If not addressed, this increase in demand may lead to supply issues .

Demand for rare earths used in permanent magnets , e.g. for electric vehicles, digital technologies or wind generators, could increase tenfold by 2050.

The World Bank projects that demand for metals and minerals increases rapidly with climate ambition . The most significant example of this is electric storage batteries, where the rise in demand for relevant metals, aluminium, cobalt, iron, lead, lithium, manganese and nickel would grow by more than 1000 per cent by 2050 under a 2°C scenario compared to a business as usual scenario.

The OECD forecasts that, despite improvements in materials intensity and resource efficiency and the growth in the share of services in the economy, global material use will more than double from 79 billion tons in 2011 to 167 billion tons in 2060 (+110%). This is an overall figure, which includes relatively abundant and geographically spread resources such as construction materials and wood. For criticality purposes, it is worth looking more closely at the OECD’s forecast for metals, projected to increase from 8 to 20 billion tonnes in 2060 (+150%) . The EU is between 75% and 100% reliant on imports for most metals .